Deployment takes toll on military kids

Americans will get in touch with their inner patriot this Independence Day, and many will pay respect to those who risk their health while serving in our armed forces. Soldiers are taking more psych meds and committing suicide at higher rates, underscoring a need for attention and support. While PTSD rates rise in vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, new research suggests that more military children are being diagnosed with psychiatric conditions.

Children with a parent deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom for longer periods were more likely to receive a mental health diagnosis, according to a report published online today in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

The study included 307,520 children, ages 5 to 17, with at least one parent serving in active duty in the U.S. Army. Compared to children whose parents did not deploy, children with parental deployment had more problems with acute stress, depressive and pediatric behavioral disorders. The study methods do not elaborate on which pediatric behavioral disorders, but I am guessing that ADHD falls in this category and think this issue raises a critical question.

If family disruption, parental deployment or another environmental stressor causes a pediatric behavioral problem, when does it make sense to use Ritalin as the first-line solution?

More military children are being prescribed psychiatric drugs, according to a report from the Army Times:

Overall, in 2009, more than 300,000 prescriptions for psychiatric drugs were provided to children under 18 who are Tricare beneficiaries.

That’s up 18 percent since 2005, according to data provided to Military Times – a period when the under-18 population increased by less than 1 percent. And some drug categories have shown even higher rates of increase – antipsychotic drugs are up about 50 percent and anti-anxiety drugs are up about 40 percent.

The report included the story of one military parent who found that the combination of an antipsychotic, Abilify, an antidepressant, Wellbutrin, a stimulant, Adderall, an anticonvulsant, Tegretol, and a sedative, Clonidine, helped to keep her 12 year old son safe.

It’s one thing for soldiers to be requiring larger amounts of potent psychotropic drugs, it’s another when their children follow suit.

In psychiatry, cases of polypharmacy may become extreme or be ineffective when one cannot or will not fix an underlying social dynamic or environmental problem. As long as we continue to send troops to active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, docs will give pills for their nerves. I hope they work more often than not, and for the safety of military families.